(July 2009) Ford's health seems to be improving with each quarterly report. The only U.S. automaker that did not take government money continued to surprise critics today posting a net profit for the second quarter.

Pre-tax operating loss was reduced to $424 million, while posting a net profit of $2.3 billion due to gains related to recent debt-reduction measures.

The $2.3 billion net profit compares with a net loss of $8.7 billion a year earlier.

Total revenue plunged nearly 29 percent to $27.2 billion as auto sales continued to languish at the 27-year lows that helped push U.S. rivals General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy.

The results move Ford towards its goal of restoring profits in 2011. It hasn't made money on an annual basis since 2005.

"While the business environment remained extremely challenging around the world, we made significant progress on our transformation plan," CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement. "Our underlying business is growing progressively stronger as we introduce great new products that customers want and value, while continuing to aggressively restructure our business and strengthen our balance sheet.

“Our underlying business is growing progressively stronger as we introduce great new products that customers want and value, while continuing to aggressively restructure our business and strengthen our balance sheet,” Mulally said.